Pencil-sharpener



(No Model.)

:IL PITOH." PENCIL SHARPENER.

Patented Oct. 20, 1885.

jyng.

DTVENTOR: a 6% WITNESSES ATTORNEYS;

M PETE. MW. Wuhillllurb 11C.

UNITED STATES I ATEN T .OF'

EUGENE FITCH, OF nss- MOINES, Town. j

PENICIIL-SIHARPVENERJ ESPECIFICATION forming part0! Letters Patent No. 328,473, dated October 20, 1885.

Application filed November 18; 1884. sen-e1 No. 148,211. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EUGENE FITCH, of Des Moines, in the county of Polk and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pencil-Sharpeners, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to pencil-sharpeners which are designed. to be carried on the pencil when not in use for sharpening; and it consists in a novel construction of the same, whereby it may be more conveniently held and manipulated to sharpen the pencil, will be very securely held on the pencil when not in use for sharpening, and whereby the knife of the sharpener is attached in a very simple and secure manner.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents a view in perspective of my improved pencil-sharpener when being used to sharpen a pencil. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal view, upon a larger scale, of the penoil, with the sharpener in position thereon when not being used to sharpen; Fig. 3, a partially sectional longitudinal view of the sharpener detached,with its parts in the same position as in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 an inner face view of said sharpener with its parts in position as when the device is used for sharpening. Figs. 5 and 6 are perspective views of the shell or head of the sharpener and of the knife detached.

A is a shell, hollow head, or sleeve made of metal and with elastic sides a a, which form spring-clamps to hold the knife B between them near their outer longitudinal edges. Said head or shell and cutter as thus combined serve to receive the pencil O freely through or between them when the sharpener is slid to its place on the pencil, as in Fig. 2, and when being used for sharpening the pencil, as in Fig. 1.

The knife 13, which is a plain flat one, terminating at its one end in a cutting-edge, b, is made with lugs c on its side edges, which lugs are made to engage with corresponding holes, 0, in the sides a a of the head or shell A by simply springing said sides slightly apart, and which elastic sides afterward serve to securely clamp or hold the cutter in place with facility for its removal, when required to sharpen or replace it by another cutter. This forms a very simple mode of holding the knife, which also constitutes one side of the sliding head or shell.

On the back of the head or shell A is pivoted, as at d, a two-armed bent leaf-spring, D, which extends in opposite directions some distance beyond the head or shell, and the outer ends of which are both bent inward, whereby said spring forms an elastic clamp to hold the sharpener to its place on the pencil when the device is not in usefor sharpening. To give said intermediately-pivoted clamp a more secure hold on the pencil, and prevent it from swiveling or turning, its outer ends are made with depressions e e on their inner faces, thus causing the clamp to have a more effective grip on the wood. The intermediately-pivoted spring-clamp D may also be used to suspend the pencil byits attached sharpener to or on the edge of a vest-pocket without regard to which end of the pencil is uppermost. In either of these cases the spring D forms a clamp and lies in direction of the length of the pencil, and its double grip or hold beyond the two ends of the head or shell A secures for said head and its attached knife B a parallel position on the pencil, which will prevent the knife from digging into the pencil when the sharpener is being slid onto or from its place on the pencil, thus facilitating the putting of the sharpener on and off; but said double clamp D also serves another and very important function besides that of a clamp. Thus by turning it on the pivot d into a transverse position relatively to the length of the head or shell A, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4,

and applying the sharpener to the point end of the pencil, said two-armed spring forms a ingspring and handle D, pivoted to said head for securing it to a pencil, substantially as specified.

2. The pivoted clamping-spring and handle D of the pencil-sharpener, having its ends constructed with depressions e on their inner faces, whereby the spring is made to more securely hold the sharpener to its place on the pencil, substantially asdescribed. I

3. The shell or head A, having elastic perforated sides a a, adapted to receive the knife between and within its sides and to carry the pivoted clamping-spring D on its back for securing the sharpener to a pencil, substantially as specified.

4. The hollow head or shell A of the sharpener, constructed with elastic sides a a, having apertures c in them, in combination with the knife or cutter B, having lugs c on its side edges arranged to engage with the apertures d of the head A, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

5. As a new article of manufacture, the pencil-sharpener, substantially as shown and described, consisting of a hollow head, sleeve, or shell, A, having. perforated elastic sides, a knife, B, provided with lugs arranged to engage with said sides, and a pivoted clampingspring and handle, D, as herein set forth.

EUGENE FITCH.

Witnesses:

EDGAR TATE, ALFRED H. DAVIS. 

